A day out with Sean and Riley ( 6th July)

We had a great morning going out in the troopy with Riley, the new seven year old friend of the kids, and his dad Sean who runs the Bush Tucker Safari Tours from Cooinda. We went to help him move camp as the magpie geese had moved to another wetland to nest and they catch and eat these for the tour, along with Buffulo meat (previously killed), fish and sometimes crocodile. They also eat lilies and bush carrots. We learnt which is the stricnean bush, highly poisonous, and the Turkey bush which is used by the aboriginal people to keep the mosquitos away. They eat what is caught or found on the day and Patsy is the aboriginal lady that works with Sean to find the bush tucker. They have a great relationship with each other which Sean says is really important. He says that many of the tours out of Uluru and other touristic places have a bank of 70 or so people whom they have to try and find someone on the day to go out on the tour. He says this is because a lot of the companies haven't established a good relationship of mutual trust and acceptance with the aboriginals and this is essential for a good business and working partnership. We met Patsy today and she is a very well respected and known elder in the community. Her place was full of sound and life, chickens, roosters and ducks everywhere. They live on a Buffulo farm of around 300 and kill 2 Buffulo/ week, during the season, for the aboriginal bush meat program. This supply of meat provides all aboriginals in Kakadu with free meat. When the Magpie geese fill the wetlands these are killed for their meat and the program. Wild pig is also found and shot on the land. Angus also came with us for the trip and had great fun in the Troopy.

I used Maddy's new binoculars, a present from Auntie Michelle, to look at the amazing array of birds in the wetlands. I saw Jabiru's, Brolgas and Magpie geese today along with Egrets and probably many others. Auntie Michelle had downloaded an APP, birds of Kakadu which I would recommend for anyone travelling through, as this helps you with sounds, identification and facts about these birds.

We learnt baw baw and baw baw ya mob which mean see you later and see you later to a group respectively. Riley taught us gamak meaning good. It is amazing to think each group of aboriginals has such unique languages, unique dreamtime stories and cultural norms. We, white fellas, tend to put them all into one group which is wrong, similar to if we would put the Germans with the Dutch. They wouldn't like that at all.

I finished reading a book about the Eden Philosophy today which is a book written by a doctor in the states. It is about the three plagues which cause more damage and deaths in the elderly than medical diagnoses such as heart attacks and strokes. These are loneliness, boredom and hopelessness. As we have been travelling around, it has become so plain and clear that these three plagues affect communities as well and individuals alike. Patsy, the aboriginal lady we met today seemed relatively happy as she and her family had purpose, meaning and were self sufficient. Many aboriginals, however, especially the men, are affected by these three plagues since white fellas came to Australia. I still struggle daily with our past and how we can improve the lives of aboriginals for the future, or maybe we have just done enough already.

Once back to camp, Sean headed off for a tour and Riley stayed with us for the afternoon. The kids had great fun swimming and making paper aeroplanes, playing Lego amongst so many other things. Tomorrow we head off again for Ubirr, however we hope to come back to Cooinda for the bush tucker tour next week.